"The decline in soda sales in general is absolutely staggering," writes Brown. " It's been happening for almost a decade now and shows no signs of abating.

Brown, who pens the Reformed Broker blog, notes that the amount of soda consumed worldwide in 2012 was now down to 1996 levels. Though both Coke and Pepsi have been holding their own over this span, maintaining flat global soda sales while almost everyone else had seen a decline.

The Reformed Broker

"The real question, to me," writes Brown, "should not be about why people have been selling their shares of Coke all year. I think a more important question would be 'What, if anything, will get people excited enough to ever want to buy Coke again, to take the stock to new highs and beyond?"

He adds, "When you consider the fact that Coke now enjoys less per capita consumption than it did five and ten years ago, this question becomes hard to answer."

The media skepticism extends to small private numbers that wouldn't make anyone's list of iconic brands.

New York Times

Regarding Pinterest, for example, Bilton points out that investors, based on a recent round of financing, has valued the stock at $3.8 billion, even though the company has no revenues yet. Yes, no revenues. (It does have an estimated 50 million unique monthly users.)

"To put that in perspective, the estimated value of Pinterest, based in San Francisco, is about a third of Twitter's," Bilton writes. "[Twitter] could have $600 million in revenue this year (though it isn't profitable) and is set to go public in a few weeks."

Bilton adds: "Even in Silicon Valley, where financiers don't often let pesky business measures like revenue and profits dampen their enthusiasm for a startup, Pinterest's new financing seemed like a reach."

One could also argue that investors are reaching in what they are currently paying for
Shutterstocksstk 0.7062146892655368%Shutterstock Inc.U.S.: NYSEUSD49.91
0.350.7062146892655368%
/Date(1481320921479-0600)/
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
191049AFTER HOURSUSD49.91
%
Volume (Delayed 15m)
:
1411
P/E Ratio
60.86585365853659Market Cap
1740993368.40225
Dividend Yield
N/ARev. per Employee
765783More quote details and news »sstkinYour ValueYour ChangeShort position
(SSTK), which holds a library of stock photos and video. The company, which went public a year ago, trades at 45 times its trailing earnings and analysts see that multiple climbing into next year.

According to Fortune, "analysts say demand for Shutterstock shares are due in large part to investors looking for a 'quality story' in the mid-size technology space. The question is whether or not the company can deliver on the market's expectations of steady growth in revenue and earnings."

"The case for Shutterstock's continued growth is fairly straightforward," writes Fortune. " As broadband Internet expands, more and more people (read: bloggers, companies, entrepreneurs) are making their way online across the world. With more people visiting websites on mobile devices like phones and tablets, the demand for pictures and videos has grown exponentially. Most marketers don't even send an email without a photo these days, analysts say, and companies have grown increasingly demanding about the appearance of their websites."

But can Shutterstock live up to its lofty multiple?

According to Fortune, "Shutterstock was born as a low-cost disruptor, but its continued growth may depend on how well it fends off challenges that will inevitably come from the low end of the market."